‘Winning Time’ Director Talks Filming Lakers’ 1983 Finals Loss

Making history as the first black woman to be nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series was the last thing on Salli Richardson-Whitfield’s mind as the nominations were announced.

“Save time “It wasn’t even on my radar,” admits the first-time Emmy nominee.

Richardson-Whitfield’s manager had called her to tell her that Gilded Age, on which she is an executive producer and director, had been nominated for best drama series — a win that seemed like a pretty big deal to Richardson-Whitfield, who has never attended the Emmys. “I was like, ‘Great! I’m going to the party,’” she recalls. “Then he called me later and he was like, ‘Salli, you’re nominated!’ I was like, ‘For what?’ He was like, ‘For saving time,’ and I couldn’t say what I was saying while I was in the middle of filming, but I was like, ‘Shut up! What is this?’”

“I had this moment where, literally, relief flooded my body, as strange as that may sound. I never cry. I don’t know if it’s [being from the] “South Side of Chicago, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I started crying,” she adds. “I remembered what we accomplished on that show and how much I loved doing it and working hard. I spent every weekend with my cinematographer. [Todd Banhazl]who was also nominated, is working on this basketball.

Buying Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is both drama and on-court dexterity in its account of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball teams of the 1980s, the behind-the-scenes dealings of owner Dr. Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) and the ups and downs of the players’ personal lives. Richardson-Whitfield is nominated for the sixth episode of Season 2, “Beat LA,” which follows the Lakers’ disappointing loss in the 1983 NBA Finals after winning the championship in 1982 and leads up to the highly anticipated matchup against the Boston Celtics – specifically, Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small) – in the 1984 Finals.

Getting the episode right required watching footage of the original games, both to replay specific plays and to make sure the technical aspects of the sport were accurate for the era. “A lot of it is about remembering what kind of basketball was played back then, because it’s not the kind of basketball we play today,” Richardson-Whitfield says. “As a director, I could tell if someone was doing a dunk that was too modern. People start overdoing it and high-fiving, and I’m like, ‘Look, nobody was doing high-fiving back then.’”

The authoritative tone RichardsonWhitfield uses in her example is the same one she used on set. “I’m a coach on the field. These guys will tell you, ‘The boss here is not quiet.’ I’m going to be on the field in front of you like a coach saying, ‘Your defense looks like crap’ — that may not have been the word I was using.” (Laughs.) “And you guys on the bench, you should be…